So Which Arsenal Will Face Everton?
Feb 27th, 2015 by 'holic
A week that started with us back in the Premiership top three and looking forward with great anticipation ends with yet another bout of navel gazing. Not immune from that I spent a chunk of last evening watching the new Invincibles documentary. In this of all weeks that was probably a mistake.
I make no apology for admitting to dewy eyes as I watched, and listened to, some of the real characters who went an entire League campaign and compiled that astonishing ‘Lost 0’ record. To hear them talk of the pain of missing out on the Champions League that season only serves to emphasise how far the current incarnation are from that holy grail.
I’m not sure we fully appreciated that eleven years ago we were watching a team that could call upon four of the finest players in the world in Vieira, Pires, Henry, and Bergkamp. Football clubs suffer from organisational multiple personality disorder, and it was impossible last night not to compare today’s squad with their forebears.
How many supreme talents do we field today? One could make a case for Alexis being in the top echelon of current footballers. Mesut Ozil is knocking on the door but appears to lack the mental toughness that Alexis exhibits. That mental toughness was in short supply generally on Wednesday as the side imploded so spectacularly against Monaco.
Those who fell in love with the invincibles are now having the depth of their amour tested. My generation fell in love with a ‘Mr Hyde’ version of Arsenal and have learned to live with the fluctuations in fortune that have followed, fully appreciating the years of feast. Those in their twenties and thirties are discovering that ‘Dr Jekyll’ Arsenal is a fickle mistress.
It isn’t easy to deal with the fragility of today’s Arsenal when one sees the side that turned defeats into draws and draws into wins. Both teams have produced simply breathtaking football, although perhaps a little less this season than previously. Yet just six weeks after what had appeared to be a defining victory at Manchester City the soft underbelly that plagues the latest Arsene Wenger creation has been cruelly exposed.
On Sunday once again a response is required when Everton come to town. To be fair the Gunners have responded to defeats well this season. However, the nature of the capitulation on Wednesday raises questions about our ability to handle teams with defensive organisation and swift counter-attacking capability. Those questions require answers before we face Manchester United and Monaco in eight crucial days.
Everton should provide a good test. They are unlikely to be too adventurous, and will have been encouraged by Monaco’s gameplan. So what does Arsene do differently on Sunday?
“For us what is important is to respond well. We are on a strong run in the Premier League and we have to respond to that disappointment in a strong way on Sunday afternoon, that’s all we can do. We are back in the top three in the Premier League, we have an opportunity to stabilise this position and we want to take it. I have not made any decision yet for Sunday’s game. We will have to rotate a little bit, because we play Sunday and Wednesday. There will certainly be some changes.”
The injury situation is little changed. Jack Wilshere will be missing for ‘days not weeks’ after another procedure was carried out on his ankle. Aaron Ramsey and Mathieu Flamini are returning to training but are ‘not completely there’. Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Debuchy are still ‘a few weeks away’.
Basically it is Wednesday’s squad but with a bit of a shake up. The first decision Le Boss has to make is who to play in goal. I feel for David Ospina, criticised in some quarters for his performance on Wednesday, but left exposed by the malfunctioning defensive unit in front of him. Talking of which it would not be a surprise to see a Premier League debut for Gabriel, and a recall for Nacho Monreal, a surprising omission in the week.
Santi Cazorla is not being used in his best position as the box to box man and here is an opportunity to get either Tomas Rosicky or Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain involved from the start. If anyone expected to see Olivier Giroud rested after his personal nightmare against Monaco then Arsene has given a strong indication that his main striker will retain his place.
“Olivier’s a strong character. Personally I don’t blame him at all. We lost as a team, we fight for each other as a team and he worked hard for the team even on the night. He didn’t miss the chances on purpose. He wanted to score the goals but that can happen.”
Everton come into the fixture guilty of inconsistency, although they have four away wins to their credit this season, including their last trip to Crystal Palace where they scored the only goal. The visitors are languishing in the bottom half of the table, which must be a frustration after they were among the clubs who pushed Arsenal hard for fourth place last season.
The ‘holic pound
I have to believe we will bounce back on Sunday. As stated above we generally do, so I am on 2-0 to the Gunners again in the hope I was just a match early with the same prediction in the week. Paddy Power offers 7/1 against that outcome.
So which Arsenal will we see on Sunday? Sadly the 2004 vintage isn’t an option, but even in this one season we have witnessed both Jekyll and Hyde versions. I love them both, we can’t change that can we, but obviously would prefer Jekyll to eventually triumph. We may be a little short of steel, but we do still have the ability to produce winning performances. Starting Sunday please.
Have a good one, ‘holics.
176 Responses to “So Which Arsenal Will Face Everton?”
First? Now to read the post but first to welcome Steve T. back to the drinks. 🙂
Rotation sounds like a good idea at this point, and I’m sure we will see some. Nacho sounds like the most likely of the three defensive changes, with Gabriel and Szczesny a little bit less since I don’t think Arsene is likely to make too many defensive changes at once. I’d love to see Gabriel in there though. TR7 would be a breath of fresh air and I would be disappointed not to see him in the team. What odds on Giroud to score a brace?
Top 3 – a good target.
Finally read your missive, maestro.
You pose good questions there and coin a classic observation, “Arsenal is a fickle mistress.”
I’ll take that 2-0 outcome, sir.
COYRRRs
i’ve got the fear on this one. how many times have we seen the all too familiar spring implosion? hope i’m wrong.
Personally, I would have loved if Giroud had dropped back slightly after half time during the game on Wednesday, to allow Welbeck to play more centrally further forward. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
A bounce back on Sunday would be excellent!
Staying third will be a challenge, considering the difference between third and seven on the league table is three points.
Nonetheless, Sunday is the type of challenge with away ties to Monaco and old Trafford coming up, which will help to define the remainder of our season.
A hard fought win on Sunday, should be on the cards.
Fickle indeed bath.
Enjoy your evening all (for whom it is not already over).
I’ll be there.
I’ll do my bitching in person, and woe betide that Wenger fella if he does not shake my hand. 😯
Hope to see Steve T the right side of the railings, too. But if not, nice to see him here.
Up the Arse. 😎
RVP out for more than two weeks?
http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/31658672
Sounds mightily like the fabled three weeks to me. There’s always hope.
Nice one Guv. Let’s take it out on the Toffees.
How dare you Arsene, to not chase down a winning manager to shake his hands?
How about the possibility that compliments were exchanged and this mandatory handshake that fully embodies the spirit and essence of our beautiful game, taking place behind the glares of the camera?
Nah, that couldn’t have been possible. Ban him UEFA!
COYG!
An excellent post H. Even by your own standards.
Many really good drinks last time round. TTG’s tactical analysis, Noosa’s leadership and Steve T’s return were three amongst many good ones.
Memory can be a funny thing- I am one of those Oskar alluded to who thought he had seen the Monaco manager celebrate with his players sooner than he did. Hands up.
On a re-watch I would agree with Oskar’s blow by blow account. I do like it when they shake hands but given the behaviour that is deemed acceptable in modern football it seems a strangely anachronistic thing to get overly concerned about. Unless, of course, you spend as much time bemoaning all the other things that are done on a matchday that in any other walk of life would be considered far worse than not shaking hands. Many of them would be considered illegal in fact.
I hope we beat Everton.
I myself cannot imagine a scenario where Gary Neville’s commentary could make watching that game more enjoyable than not having him say a word- for gooners and non-gooners alike. Given that football is entertainment, not sport, (certainly as it is presented through the media) I imagine many people can and do- otherwise a company as powerful, canny and successful as Sky would be unlikely to employ him.
Unbelievably, he managed to worsen the experience of watching that match for me. I spent the whole game with the remote in my hand strategically muting him. The silly sausage.
Yes gsd it was annoying hearing neville on the commentary but he did criticise us fairly because we stank.
Cheers Mate! Really appreciate every word of that.
I’ve loved some great Arsenal teams and players over the years, and groaned at some absolutely sub par performances from team, players and management over the same period.
But one thing I’ll take to my grave is the utter joy of knowing certain (not all, but definitely the majority fellow supporters over the years. From the boys I first went with; Tim S, Richard C and Pete K as a wide eyed country boy back in the 70’s, to the crew from Harrow (who were a fucking mob as well) I hung around with in the early 80’s, to the boys I spent the rest of the 80’s with, Big Steve, Stav, Sharpy, Steve from Bournemouth, & Scots Ian, after coming to my senses, through to the good folk I’ve met through Arseblog and now this fine establishment.
Arsenal is the common cause, but its the (real) people who make that cause worthwhile. Not the players, not the management and certainly not the cunts behind today’s rampant commercialism.
I get dewy eyed mate. Thinking about you taking the trouble to bat out another post, so as folk like me, still know The Arsenal world is one worth knowing, whatever fucking happens on the pitch.
More power to your elbow. Enjoy Sunday! Gonna be massive.
Great post Esso.
Seconded. Superb Esso.
Well said Esso.
bt8- Endless repetition of the same points by the same man are not made any more useful by the fact that they were fair points the FIRST time they were made.
It is made even worse when you sense the fact that he is constantly on the look out for anything from us which gives him an excuse to start banging his favourite drum. And the glee with which he does it.
And personally I think Neville (very understandably) finds it harder to be objective about us than any other team because we are the only team with the same manager as when he played. Wenger was the enemy to him for years. He viewed us and le Boss through the prism of Ferguson’s hatred and made up his mind about us long before he became a pundit. I have no problem with that (he is, on balance, probably human) and he does not pick himself to commentate on these matches. But he seems a bad choice to me not least because he is happy when we lose. I find his commentary biased as well as whiningly annoying.
It is probably a very unreasonable thing to hold against someone but I find the tone of his voice infuriating. Which biases me against him…
Thank you Esso. Means a great deal that, especially tonight.
Indeed thank you all.
Looking forward to Sunday Dr z. 🙂
nice write up Holic especially the Dr Jekyll/ Mr Hyde syndrome but more importantly your pierce on the invincibles
Having Only recently watched my favourite invincible doco, it does indeed make them seem even more unbelievable by today’s arsenal standard.
Watching the invincibleswin when they were behind and hearing the invincibles talk with a pure unfiltered winning mentality makes you see them as almost mystical and fantasy like.
One thing I noticed with the invincibles docos is they don’t talk about mental toughness, they just did it.
Today’s arsenal are indeed more like a horror show of Jekyll and Hyde proportions…
Who the hell knows which arsenal side will bother to put in shift Everton…
I thank bt8b for alerting me to the return of SteveT. I feel that I contributed to his decision to retire from the bar by my own clumsy choice of language. For that, I apologise.
I watched Wednesday’s match in a hotel here in the Dolomites and was, naturally greatly disappointed. However, I can’t join the outpouring of I told you sos that I have read in the relatively small number of drinks I have read. To me, the major disappointment was the team’s failure to knuckle down and continue to play in a relatively conservative fashion after falling behind to a dreadfully unluck, massively deflacted opening goal. Even more upsetting was the concession of a third after pulling one back so late on.
I fear most in the return leg that we will somehow get ourselves two up early in the game as I do not anticipate that we would then be able both to get a third and retain a clean sheet.
This current Arsenal team is not as good as The Invincibles of ten years ago. That is not to say that they aren’t a very good team. Indeed, any drinker in this establishment who only now realises this difference in ability needs to ask themselves some serious questions. Surely the relevant comparison is with Arsenal teams of more recent years, and on that scale I am more than happy that we are improving. Are we improving fast enough? I’m not sure. Would I like us to improve faster? Yes. Do I know what we should have done differently, and more importantly did I know at the time we failed to do it? Certainly not. Do you?
Bring on Everton.
COYG
Holic, What Esso said, goes for me as well. Thank you!!!
Teacher, Philosopher, but most importantly, our rock. xx
Thank you GSD, your #11 is appreciated mate.
Öskar
And kudos to all of you who participated in ‘Handshake Gate’.
Changed my opinion so many times, because of your powers of persuasion. 🙂
Dunno about Jekyll and Hyde, ‘holic, seems more like a mutual borderline personality disorder (BPD) to me. As explained in the Wiki article…
“A cycle often begins in which people with BPD feel emotional pain, engage in impulsive behavior to relieve that pain, feel shame and guilt over their actions, feel emotional pain from the shame and guilt and then experience stronger urges to engage in impulsive behavior to relieve the new pain.”
A never-ending cycle clearly demonstrated this season, imo.
Öskar
No probs Oskar. Always enjoy batting it back and forth with you (except when you are right, wink).
My opinions are my own and I’m happy to express them. But backing opinion up with inaccuracies and falsehoods (even if done accidently or honestly intended) is not something I am a fan of when others do it. Given that I realised I had done the same it would have been very unfair not to raise my hands. Mea culpe.
Everton are always difficult. I would rather play them when they’re mid-table, not hovering just above the relegation zone and up for it. And they alone of all English teams had a win midweek, so will be in good spirits, unlike us.
Theo, TR7, Nacho and Gabriel all have to start. I’d also give Emily a game in goal, but can’t see that happening so maybe Sir Ches as a warm-up to the cup game. Le Coq is teetering on the edge of a red card and I’d give him a rest to cool off and play TR7 alongside Santi. No hard man there, but hopefully the back four will have had a rocket about their primary duties and be unlikely to go wandering off. My wishlist…
Emily
Hector the Protector, Gabby, Kos, Nacho
TR7, Santi
Theo, Alexis, Özilla
OG
Öskar
None of us are immune, GSD. I myself used to be conceited, although I am of course now perfect. 😉
Öskar
Another post, Holic, and a fine one. 😉
Esso – marvellous !
Can’t think of a Toffee pun that’s not been done before so, as I’m feeling a bit brittle, I’ll chews not to get involved and just fudge off. 😉
Toffees are there to be licked, Trev, and the hard ones just take a little longer. This lot could take the full 90 minutes, but they’ll still end up in the toilet eventually.
Öskar
That’s the problem with people who think they know it all Oskar- they really wind up those of us that do. Wink.
Have to hope Everton will rolo-ver and hand us our 3-point bounty.
It will be tough – expect a few crunchie tackles, but hope the outcome will be Kinder to us than Monac-oh !
😉
I’m tired. But if my brain worked better it would come up with the question which has as the punchline answer- “Sticky Toffee Pudding.”
Help! Can someone please tell me what it is?
Oh good, Trev is still here. Have at it sir.
As long as they don’t park the double decker.
The question desserts me, GSD. 😉
I don’t have an issue with Neville’s comments, I have an issue with that pile we laid on the pitch on Wednesday. Let’s move on and bounce back with three points.
Wish I had seen the Invincibles but that was before my initiation to this great game. Man, you guys are lucky to have seen that squad. I’ve only seen them win one Cup since my inauguration in 06/07. Many ups and downs, close calls, great finishes and heart breaking defeats. We will come good again as we always do.
Heh Trev. Thankyou!
I’ve been tied up all day( Fifty Shades of Grey has turned Mtprs TTG into a raving dominatrix…I wish) no I have been working. Yet during a working day Ive had a series of conversations with Zgooners and non- Gooners about Wednesday. Every game gets such attention now. Years ago 27,000 people would watch a non- televised match and apart from discussion in the pubs afterwards that would be that. Now we have a fixed and unforgiving lens on every aspect of players and performance. It is starting to erode my love for the game.
But not THAT much! Sunday is a big match but every game is. There is stuff wrong with the club. I worry that the overhaul at youth level has been very unsuccessful so far, we have some squad deficiencies but not many and Wenger can be prone to games where his team lose the plot do badly he must take much of the blame.
But my biggest concern is that the majority of our supporters are fickle, inconstant and only interested in a team that is constantly winning. I was quite delighted to see Steve T posting again. Welcome back mate. There is a big difference between well- articulated concern and the sort of knee jerk rubbish that holds sway among the gutter media much of which attaches itself to our club.
The big question now is whether there really is a better way than Wenger’s way that is in reach within our current set-up and financial capability. I’m still not convinced enough that there is to take that chance but concede that there might be. But it’s a huge risk and one we will repent over at leisure if we think that our sort of Groundhog Day is no better than Spurs’ or Liverpool’s or most of the other clubs in England.
But Wednesday shook our club to the core because we had started to hope and it’s the hope that kills you. I was convinced Wenger needed little pruning in the summer and just two or three high quality purchases. But I feel that really might be complacent thinking. Sunday will begin to tell us but only part of the story. And anyway even if the good things happen they will only be what we’ve come to expect. That’s the exquisite torment Wenger has inflicted on us and on himself. Confusing times.
I love you lot.
Thank you. 🙂
Ahoy!
And well said Esso!
Pirate! 🙂
I love Bob. That is all
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/piers-morgan-hurt-after-arsenal-legend-bob-wilson-questions-his-support-for-the-gunners-and-labels-him-a-pompous-individual-10073107.html
Mtprs, Ttg? Middle Tennessee Paranormal Research Society? Or what? Or did you mean Swmbo?
Öskar
Funny world the arsenal world.
Apparently there are bigger problems we should focus on when the team plays shite then the handshake affair.
But apparently it is more important to run some investigation into the “alleged fickle affair ” rather then look straight at the team or the coach.
What an absolute lot of nonsense.
There is one easy way to stop the ” alleged fickle fans”
Start winning and Stop losing so easily so regularly…
Perhaps the real problem is a ” fickle team” and an even ” more fickle” coach who only like playing beautiful football ” against the lower level EPL teams
” Is there a better way then the wenger way” of one trophy in near on 10 years……
Is that a serious question…
Yep I can now see why the ” fickle can” is seen as the most serious problem we have…
I think the biggest problem in the club is the cranky whinging arsenal members who spend most games non stop complaining and bitching about other arsenal fans and members…who bother to give bit of stick to the team and AW..
Cheers Cynic. Primrose is a legend. Morgan is an utter cunt, who no one, but no one had ever seen or heard of at The Arsenal, till the late 90’s at the earliest. He’s been challenged on the history of his allegiance before and failed to answer the questions.
Needs kicking up and down the road he does. And then some.
Szczesny time?
Esso@14: well said.
Oskar (or anyone else who has some authority on this stuff)- could I please ask for some advice on punctuation?
What are speech/quotation marks and how should they be used?
Esoo – If you’re going to do it, make a fucking long road.
make it.
Damned early morning drinking…
And Esso, not Esoo. Shit. Where’s the edit button?
S’allright Chief. I ‘got’ the message.
Cheers H.
Hard to write piece, but unfortunately all to familiar in it’s reading, we really have been here before, haven’t we!?
Ah well, onwards and upwards as they say.
Come On You Gunners.
ps.
Luckily(?) Arsenal were pretty poo when I first started going to THOF so I enjoy the good times even more.
Time at a premium at the moment, so back drinking will come later, but I noticed the rumblings of a return of Steve T.
Hello mate.
Esso@54. Make sure Morgan gets it too…
Morning all Gooners
After a week best forgoten its good to read some sense, penned by the barman and the usual suspects.
I am going to have to admit that I took the defeat on Wednesday rather badly, I may have called the players birth line into question once or twice. My son spent the next two days trying to convince me the tie wasnt over *this fell on deaf ears* as was my anger still for such a poor performance.
The germans were so awlful I cant even put it into words, now 3 days later my disgust has started to supside and the world seems a little more rosey this morning with the hope of a good performance Sunday, fingers crossed !!!!!!
So thank you Holic and the rest of you, and a big thank you to my son who has a lot more blind faith than me this week, who has brought me back inline.
Cheers all
Laughing at Stelling. “40 000 Spurs fans expect them to lose”
Wham 0-3 Palace ! So far.
bt8 @ 9: might van Pussy’s absence actually be an advantage for United, as it clears up their upfront clutter, makes van Gaal think to put Schrek back at forward and start Herera?
Also a bit disappointed that Pool and Spuds dropped out of Europe so early thereby removing the Spursday nite fixture congestion. After getting tonked by Chelsea tomorrow, Spuds only have the makeup PL match to deal with.
Van Pursey out. Foul Cow in for ManUre.
Come on you Black Cats – a small favour would be in order.
And you could kick the fat pie muncher off the park too. Ta. 😉
Yes! Go WBA!
😀
Good day for the underdogs so far. Crystal Palace great result. West Brom great first half. Sunderland in with a shout. Sunday, however, the underdogs must die.
Bayonne and Trev @61 and 62. Could you both be right? Upfront clutter cleared up at the same time it is Foul Cowed. 🙂
Last week’s win at Palace was very useful. They will finish top half if they sort their crappy pitch out.
As for Bob Wilson , who I count as a friend and someone of the highest character and the tosspot Morgan , a creation of the media age, there is no comparison on any level. Bob is an Arsene loyalist but that is because he knows how committed Wenger is to the club. He is right to call out Morgan. No Arsenal fan should behave like him. Pity Brett Lee wasn’t more accurate when he bowled at him. Esso summed it up perfectly.
I have to confess that I want Spurs to win tomorrow cos my grandson is there and taking part in a penalty shootout at half- time. Frankly I think I find them marginally less revolting than the Chavs anyway.
Ttg,
have to agree with you about the Chavs and the Spuds.
Mourinho’s behaviour over the last week has been utterly nauseating. First, crashing the Sky Sports studios for his “special” programme – a thinly disguised hour or so dig at the referee. Not that I watched it, mind, but that’s what I heard, and that’s what it appeared.
Not content with that, the poor love was almost in tears yesterday because he just didn’t dare to speak about the Matic incident any more, for fear of all the trouble he would get into.
I find it hard to put a hair’s width between Ferguson and Mourinho. Two cheating, manipulative hypocrites, so self obsessed that they actually believe the tripe that constantly comes out of their mouths.
From the BBC:
“Hearts fail to match their 21-0 victory over Anchor in 1880.”
Leave it to the Brits to find something negative to say about a 10-goal margin of victory. 😉
Training pic Alert, First time ever, all 3 goalies pictured together! Hmm 😉
Ttg, Best of luck to your grandson, what an honor for him. May he channel his inner Harry Kane. 🙂
Punctuation, GSD? It’s a portmanteau word derived from ‘punk’ and ‘education’ – ie, an oxymoron consisting of words which obviously don’t belong together.
Note the single quote marks I’ve used around punk and education to highlight them, as opposed to the double quote marks around “What are speech/quotation marks and how should they be used?” where I am quoting what you wrote. You will also find single quotes used in irony.
But there is no absolute rule, it’s more down to style. We pure-bred English language users find a use for both forms, whereas the more easily confused Yanks find it easier to use only the double marks.
Öskar
The difference between spuds and chavs is like the difference between socialism (for which you can sub the spuds) and capitalism (the chavs).
What is the difference between capitalism and socialism? In a capitalist society man exploits man, and in a socialist one it’s the other way around.
Whichever way you cut it the difference between despicable losers is just the degree of despicability.
Öskar
We have, in this distinguished virtual premises, haematologists, cardiologists, chiropractors, nurses, sports physiotherapists and osteopaths.
What we really need tomorrow at The Emirates are psychiatrists – mental health practitioners for players and supporters alike.
Somehow, after the elephantine disappointment of Wednesday evening, I am actually looking forward to returning to The Home of Football tomorrow afternoon. This, after another season of alarming inconsistency where, having whetted our collective appetites and built skyscrapers of our hopes in the summer, the club has contrived to look a Champions League gift horse in the mouth and blown it, in the biggest of ways, at home to Monac-oh.
Since The Invincibles fragmented and departed, in many cases far too soon, the team has suffered from a mental fragility that has destroyed so much promise.
Time and again the team has fought back from adversity, in individual matches and seasons as a whole, only to crumble at the chance of consolidation and true advancement. Lessons we are told must be learned, are quickly forgotten. Avoidable disaster scenarios are endlessly repeated as the players test the theory of madness, and expect different results from carrying out exactly the same actions.
We have to hope – we have no alternative – that this time they really can find some belief in their undoubted ability, and match it with the application required to rescue another season that, at this present time, can still go either way.
The fans ?
Oh, we need help alright.
It seems that the £3,000,000 of consultancy fees charged to the club in the summer was not, in fact, to pay for psychiatric consultants. It’s hard to see quite what advice was given, other than to increase the ticket prices, the catering charges and, therefore, the profits again.
But we continue to lap it up. We gladly join the players, believing that they will learn those lessons in a huge triumph of hope over experience.
But we are irredeemably Gooners and many of us will be meeting up again tomorrow. As Esso said, it is increasingly what it is all about. One Zicoinexile will be making the trip all the way down from Scotland for the pleasure.
Yes, we are mad, and I am looking forward to it.
Thin traffic on here tonight. Normally pre- match there is a lot more chatter about the upcoming battle. Wednesday really hurt and those it didn’t hurt aren’t proper fans. We get about 15,000 of them every week.
I wanted to draw attention to the woeful form of the U 18s . They had the second worst record in their league but we were playing the one side with a worse record, Norwich , at home today. We lost 3-1!
Bielik debuted but the concern must be that the coach De Kat has not welded any sort of team together. We lost at home to Crewe in the Youth Cup in the week. I think we have come to expect better from our youth set-up. Ironic that several of our youth players are breaking into the first team at the moment. But it isn’t likely that too many current U18 s will!
Dismal news from the U-18s TTG. We used to be able to rely on our youth teams being amongst the best in the land. Not good for the future even if we’ve only seen talent coming through the ranks into the first team in dribs and drabs.
Meanwhile here’s hoping there is a sense of anger about Wednesday among the players and a desire to demonstrate the quality and capabilities that we know they can achieve.
Or else it’s Lithium, ECT and lobotomies all round.
COYGs.
Thanks Oskar. Greatly appreciated.
Top post Trev.
I will be working for a minimum 12 hours today. Yet I have contrived to give myself a two hour break between 2 and 4…That is result number 1! I too am looking forwards to the match. Come on boys- another good league outing please.
Have a great day in great company all those going.
Good lad GSD!
Finally got a moment, and feel I’ve calmed down enough, to lay down a few thoughts on what went wrong in midweek. The short answer is: “everything”.
I’m sure it’s all been covered in here already (not been able to backdrink everything since the game, but highlights seemed to be Esso @14, various sense spoken by Trev and TTG and the return of Steve T – very welcome), but in the interests of completeness, here’s my tuppence.
I think the first and foremost problem, and pretty much the only one that (arguably) wasn’t entirely self-imposed was the centre of midfield. Coq and Cazorla. That is not my idea of a core that will carry us through a champs league knockout game. Santi has done well in the role against lesser opponents, but he’s a square peg in a round hole: he is fantastic on the ball, but he’s not a defensive player and when a game is going to be nip and tuck he’s a risk in that space. Coq, meanwhile, is a better option than some of our other DMs, but not the answer – he’s game, but his passing is still sometimes hit and miss, he can be over exuberant and he gets ahead of the ball too often. I think he has a role to play for us, but it’s a stretch for him at this level, particularly without a more experienced partner. To see what we were missing you needed only to look at the opposition: Kongdogbia and Moutinho are a pair of proper, specialised CMs, and they ate ours for breakfast.
Next, the wingers and full backs. No width at all. Both wide men tucking inside, and the full backs asked to push up – Steve calls this spot on. It was obvious by the half hour that we were not stretching Monaco, yet it took forever to change the system. If you’re going to play attacking full backs you need central midfielders who will drop in and cover. We quite simply did not have that on the night, so the formation was stuffed from the start. I also don’t understand why we chose this occasion to pair Gibbs and Bellerin for what I think was the first time; normally we balance the pair, with one attack minded (Bellerin/Gibbs) and one more defensive (Monreal/chambers). That has always seemed sensible to me, no idea why this was the moment to abandon the policy, but when I saw the line up it suggested we were aiming to finish the tie in the first leg. One of the few things we appear to have succeeded in on the night, sadly.
While we’re doing tactics (and in case it needs saying – the boss had an absolute stinker on the night): we made poor subs. Giroud coming off seemed a wise move at the time – his head looked to have gone – in retrospect it killed what little fluency we had going forward. The Coquelin sub, meanwhile, was just extraordinary. Obviously, he was taken off to avoid a sending off, but just look at the areas in which Coq got himself carded and then nearly sent off – two fouls on the edge of the opposition’s box. Utterly needless and stupid. With Coq gone, and no other specialist central midfielders on the bench to replace him, our shape went out in the most alarming fashion imaginable. The 15 minutes before we scored our goal were simply the worst I can recall at home from an arsenal side in many years. We couldn’t keep the ball, we didn’t defend as a unit, and I swear at one stage Monaco were showboating on the edge of our box. Utterly farcical.
The introduction of the Ox, meanwhile, was a double edged sword. First and foremost, credit to him, because he exploded onto the pitch and very nearly rescued the game for us – great work rate. He will be some player in a year or two. But if won’t be in central midfield, because he turns over possession far too easily and in dangerous areas. So it proved, and it cost us.
Beyond the above, I thought Theo (poor as he’s been lately) should have started the game, not particularly on merit but because we needed width and a goal threat far, far more than we needed Danny’s willingness to graft – I don’t think I saw a Monaco full back cross the halfway line all night, they didn’t need too much tracking. As it was, theo got ten minutes before the Coquelin sub utterly ruined us, and in that time he got behind twice.
All of the above would have been bad enough, but then on top we had the individual performances. Not going to go into them in detail, no one played well but at least two players turned in their absolute worst performances in the shirt on the night and no one will look back with any pride on their night’s work. Actually, I will name on player, simply to avoid giving the impression I’m deliberately ignoring his “contribution” (given that he’s something of a favourite of mine): Ozil was fucking terrible.
And then, on top of all of the above, we had the lack of patience. It’s a two leg tie, but as soon as the first goal went in we started playing like there were two minutes left to save it, and the nature of the subs only contributed to that impression. Football at this level is about patience, concentration and game management, not dashing about the place like a headless chicken, and that’s precisely what we did. When it’s going badly we need the players to double down and do their own jobs better, instead of which they all decided to do one another’s – Welbeck played as an auxiliary centre forward alongside Giroud, Sanchez started coming back to collect the ball on the halfway line, Gibbs started playing as a left winger, etc.
In the end, we were lucky it wasn’t worse than it was. I know we missed sitters, but if Monaco had been a better side and exploited their breaks properly they might well have stuck five or six past us. Just so poor.
There’s some discussion above of Gary Neville. I hate Gary Neville. I hated him when he was a player and I still hate him as a pundit, the snidey little shit. It was painful to have to listen to him coat us off all night, particularly because most of what he said (apart from the drooling over Berbatov) was true. Never again, please.
Hopeless optimist that I am, in spite of all of the above, I think the big picture remains relatively bright. We are well placed in the league and may still end the season with a trophy. Hell, we may even squeeze past Monaco – it wouldn’t be unusual for this team to go get a result in France and then proceed to make all the same mistakes in the next round. But regardless of all of that, it’s shit scary that this side, with all its quality, retains such an ability to just utterly self destruct in the manner they did in midweek. I don’t pretend to know what the psychological factors involved are, but I do wish to fuck that we’d learn some lessons at some stage.
It’s customary to end a moan like this with a word on “what we need”. For me, we need a proper DM, a replacement for Diaby and maybe another centre back, because Per has been creaking all season long and that second goal the other night was as terrifyingly bad as any we have concede in recent seasons given the context. I think Woj back in goal would be a good idea. I’ve seen some calls for a new striker, but I’m not sure I agree – Giroud has taken a step up this season, he makes us better going forward and his goal return is generally healthy. He just had a bad night.
But beyond all that, we need to set up properly, stop playing people out of position and find some sort of team unity. Amy Lawrence pointed out this week that nobody went to Giroud after he missed that sitter and gave him a little gee up, told him not to worry and to crack on. These little things can be overrated in football, and it’s top easy to say “we lack leadership” after a loss (when did a team ever lose and look like it was full of leaders?), but the team need to find a bit of what the Invincibles so evidently had: that ability to support one another and to tell each other the truth, even when it was hard to hear.
On that note, I really hope we see a reaction today. And by that, I don’t mean eleven players charging about at 100mph. I mean a solid, patient team performance. If I were the manager, I would ring the changes and start Woj, Gabriel, rosicky, Monreal and one of Ox or Theo. I’m not sure he’ll go for that much change, we’ll see. There can be no hangover – the players should be itching to get back out there and start wiping away the memory of one of the worst performances I ever hope to see from an Arsenal side. The team talk should write itself.
That’s my moan done then. Onwards and upwards. It’s certainly hard to imagine how a performance could go downwards from what we saw the other night (touch wood).
COYG
Oh, and enjoy the game, those who are going.
Painful and expensive as it may be, there are those of us who used to make the trip and are now stuck looking after two nippers on the wrong side of town who would dearly love to be in your shoes – even when it’s shit I’d rather be there, surrounded by other Gooners than sat on the sofa listening to that twat Neville revelling in our crapness.
Enjoy the Tollie, enjoy the chat and enjoy the match. When it’s not going well, going to the footie is as much about seeing your mates as it is about what’s being served up on the pitch.
COYG
We musttttttt grab a win today, crucial time and we need the bounce more than any time this season…. such are my thoughts of course!
Chavs or spuds???!.. Argghhhh..mind tear.. heart bre-ak.. arghh..
…Spuds it is then.. cause Moaninho is one useless C….. ! And nothing would make me happier than to see him getting NOTHING again this season! (A close second would be ManU NOT getting CL qualification!)
As for our team, everyone knows either explicitly or implicitly that our problem has never been skill or anything of the physical nature. .it has always been mental…!
Having said that am not going to give them more stick than they have already accumulated… going to get behind them ..every single match.
Up The Arse!
😀
http://www.espnfc.us/barclays-premier-league/story/2323430/arsene-wenger-challenges-arsenal-players-to-defend-as-well-as-attack
“Offensively we have lots of solutions. We have to find a team balance. It is more about team balance than any individual,” the Arsenal manager said.
“When you have the ball in the modern game you have to attack, when you don’t have the ball you have to defend. All the players who can’t do that, cannot play.”
—————-
Balance and Attitude!
🙂
Funnily enough, the one player you’d say cannot defend was not in the team on Wednesday and we got destroyed. If the team he picked against Monaco was set up to defend as well as attack, Arsenal is in shit street without a paddle.
Or something.
Just off. Recent outings have exposed our small ball playing MFs in a big way. There is no doubt that we must have a robust, athletic holding MF this coming Summer. Everton will use their advantage in this area as Monaco, Palace, Sp-ds and Leicester have done in recent games. Could be a very difficult afternoon.
Hoping for the best. ? 2-1
COYRs
Great write up N7.
Kudos for taking the time out to write something up. I don’t think I could have got the balance right in critiquing that performance while maintaining some element of positivity for today which is what the teams needs at the moment. As such, to borrow a phrase that the Maestro occasionally uses to make the same point, it was “cannons in” as opposed to “cannons out”.
I think the most disappointing element was the point that Trev made, in that it came as no real surprise and it was depressingly familiar. And this has to do with that “Psyche” that the teams in latter years have adapted. There have been different personal, but the buck stops with the manager.
In 2006 we went to a CL final with Keown coaching a back four that consisted of players like Senderos and Eboue. Keown knows a thing or too about defending. Without exception, my favourite Arsenal player ever. What he lacked in technique he made up for in dedication and commitment. He bled for the shirt. Over the past 10 years, we’ve had many technical players with flair and technique and all the necessary aesthetic qualities. But we lacked bleeders. We lacked steel. And we still do. I read with keen interest Keowns remarks on BCC that night. He said that Wenger loved his players and treated them like sons. But that he had to make some very serious decisions and put that emotion aside.
Everton and QPR are all about 3 points irrespective of how we get them. Its hugely important to build some confidence before we go Old Trafford.
A final point just to say that I think Nacho Monreal has singularly been our best defensive player so far this season. Not only has be been superb at left back, but hugely competent covering at CH for Kos. So to leave him out of a CL tie where we needed to keep a clean sheet was not only tactically “suicidal” to use Wengers own words, but incredibly disrespectful to the Spaniard. Two goals came from Gibbs side that night. I expect Nacho will be the first name on the sheet today.
Good stuff N7, Joe.
Right, off we go!
Come on you Reds!! 2-1 will do, ta !
Baker Street. The two forces of darkness alighting here. Can’t wait to meet them again later.
Arsenal XI: Ospina, Bellerin, Gabriel, Koscielny, Gibbs, Coquelin, Cazorla, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ozil, Alexis, Giroud.
Don’t get why Ox is in the team when he spent the whole of his little cameo the other night (bar that one shot) giving the ball away. Hey ho.
Must win this one… come on!
😀
Come on back, you rip roaring!!!!!
Come on!
COME ON YOU GUNNERSSSSS
I don’t want any excuses from the guys today. Just go and play, Everton played Thursday so we have an extra day rest. Just go play, we have Liverpool right behind our tail now. COYG!!!!!!!
COntrol the midfieldddddddddddddd…
Come on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ospina that took balls! Good call.
Ospina you brilliant brilliant man!
WHY are we sitting so far back???!
Move UP!!!!
Grrrr!
Come ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gabriel you beauty!
COme ON!
GET IN!
Giroud.. redemption begins!
😀
Get IN!
Giroud makes amends. xx
Chocolate leg
Well In @ABB!
😀
Hey BB 🙂
That’s it.. start closing them down!
Come on!
Got better as the half went along. Now just to keep that trend moving in the right direction. Big goal for Giroud. TR7 to help close this one out?
That Giroud goal helped settle some nerves..!
Am not sure if I like our new sit back and counter tactic.. if that’s what it is.. but it’s paying dividends here.
Let’s go get a couple more in the second half.. need to up that goal difference and catch City!!!!!
😀
Well done Giroud.
Gabriel had a shakey start but grew as the half went on. Magic saving tackle.
Alexis putting it about, Ox off the pace.
COYG’s.
I’m in a dodgy pub filled with rugby fans. Watching this on the one tv that is showing it (out of 12). There is a drunk blue scouser behind me. Very friendly bloke. Talkative. May have had a few. Still, he’s much better than Neville.
And we are winning!
H2H. Ox was playing well before his injury. A few weeks out and he has not rediscovered his mojo yet. Sooner rather than later please Alex…
Good lord. The spuds and the chavs are starting to file in. Give me strength.
UTA
Bring on Theo!
Perfect game for him! Pace is needed!
Come On!
Great save
Giroud takes Coq out. 😮
Is that a broken nose? Take Coq out!!!
N7. What was that about bleeders? Wink.
And that is why Tomas should be given another year or three!
🙂
TR7!
Exhale………
Fucking Yes! Massive Goal by Tomas!
Blood, Guts and well deserved glory!
All about super tom.
Not the greatest performance, but after Wednesday it was always going to be a bit tentative. Massive result though, well done the lads.
Important win. Proud of the boys. Arsene proven right to keep Ospina on the goal and to leave Per. Gabriel is looking quite promising.
Three points plus a little more to my mind. Puts us back in business. Just give Le Coq an iron nose shield and he’ll be ready to roll.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpDw3s7XJKo
F Chelski!
The NBC team here in US gave Ospina the MoTM, and he was excellent in all the decisions he took today, but I won’t mind young Bellerin getting acknowledged too. Some terrific forward runs, crosses (Giroud should have scored one more), track backs, tackles and positional defending. The Gabriel-Bellerin combination on the right looks promising — intelligent yet instinctive and uncluttered play. I hope the supporters won’t be on their case when the inevitable howler or two happens. Ox made he game a bit too complicated at times but is getting back to the sharpness before he was injured.
Gabriel had one or two uneasy moments but looks very promising, that tackle inside the box was world class.
Not sure why Gibbs is getting the nod ahead of Monreal on the left unless Monreal is carrying an injury. Monreal had only 15 odd minutes of tough time against Zaha but after that he adjusted that game. Gibbs was competent in defense today but very predictable and limited going forward, and lost many a momentum that was set up by Alexis.
Ozil drifted in and out of the game, but still two assists. TR7, effervescent as always, could have had one more. Would like a bit more of that directness from Ozil when he picks up the ball just ahead of penalty box.
Some rests to Santi/Giroud/Alexis before the Man U game?
Enjoyed the committed performances from Giroud and Alexis. The former should have probably had one more goal, but the referee should also have awarded him a penalty when his right footed shot was saved by Jagielka’s outstretched hands.
Alexis looked rather unhappy being taken off and at the end of the match…he sets very high standards for himself and more desperate he gets to get back to his scoring streak better for us.
We have just 5 away games left: QPR, Newcastle, Burnley, Hull & ManU. If we can maintain our unbeaten run at home — and at least four points from the two matches against Pool and Chelsea — the #2 spot is not out of bounds. If City doesn’t turn it around against Barca they will probably have a mini-blip.
Why Theo may not be seeing as much of action:
http://www.sportinglife.com/football/news/article/312/9738136/-?
[“Offensively we have lots of solutions. We have to find a team balance. It is more about team balance than any individual,” the Arsenal manager said.
“When you have the ball in the modern game you have to attack, when you don’t have the ball you have to defend. All the players who can’t do that, cannot play.”]
Chelski acing the Deeno’s Dish Detergent Cup, I see. Will the victory prize include a year’s supply of the company’s product to clean out Mourinho’s mouth?
I can’t see who is winning.
Only that Spertz are losing.
Just watched it after being out for the afternoon. A good three points but very unimpressive performance with the same old failing of playing at two slow a tempo, with no edge up front and dodgy at the back, although Gabriel did well after his error. Ospina also very good. I fail to see why people seem to want Woj back.
Ozil is junk, Alexis not up to speed.
But a win is a win.
two? You illiterate berk. I meant too.
I have returned from the match, made mrs TTG a cup of tea and turned off the TV to avoid seeing Chelsea celebrate . What a day they had today. But they are still scum.
Our game was tense, shapeless and frankly awful as a spectacle . For those far away it was extraordinarily windy . We were also very flat to start with suffering a hangover from Wednesday of Stag Night proportions.
Overall I was torn between Ospina or Bellerin as MOTM. I also liked the fact that after making a diabolical mistake Gabriel made an absolutely brilliant saving tackle on Lukaku but he needed Kos to take one for the team after he gave possession away in the second half.But overall I think he is class and will learn fast and settle well. I think I prefer Nacho at LB and Santi needs to be played further forwards as its wasting his main gifts by using him so deep. TR7 came on and as he always does increased the positive feeling on and off the pitch.
Concerns? We are still way too narrow, the width is expected to be provided by the full backs . Sanchez is about 60% of the player he was last year and the biggest concern is Ozil . I desperately hope he becomes a legend at Arsenal but I’m starting to feel pretty certain that he won’t. I don’t think Premier League football suits his style. He has wonderful gifts but I don’t think they always flourish in the hurly burly of the EPL. As for Theo he has obviously slipped below Welbeck in the pecking order
The area we need to seriously think about in the Summer is the midfield. We could easily dispense with Arteta, Flamini, Diaby and need much better seasons and fitness from Ramsey and Wilshere. Coquelin is great back- up but not quite top quality and Santi needs to be played further forward although this move to Atletico is a worrying possibility. So Wenger has lots of thinking to do about his midfield options . I think he needs two strong central midfielders , one primarily defensive and one to help us transition more effectively from defence to attack and vice versa.
I like Ospina but think we ought to look at a big dominant rival for him and cut our losses on Ches and I think we might look very seriously at a world- class striker if we hope to compete for silverware rather than making up the numbers.
I shal be at Loftus Road on Wednesday. They had a free weekend and we looked heavy- legged and Coquelin looked like he broke his nose. Three points are essential but will be tough to get
It is slightly scary when I realise that thanks to the Copa America and the Copa America Centenario Sanchez won’t get a proper summer break until 2017!
Very good result. I was happy with the performance – after being ludicrously open in midweek we kept it tight, stayed compact and waited for them to make mistakes, which they duly did.
We were never going to put on a show here. Not after the Monaco game and not with a midweek away game to come. This was one where you just bank the points any which way.
I thought young Bellerin was motm. Absolutely ran the entire flank, great engine, very positive going forward and defensively solid. Hats off also to Ospina, who I would have dropped for this game but who made two excellent stops to help secure the points. Beyond that, I liked what I saw of Gabriel. A bit sloppy here and there, clearly still adapting but the raw materials seemed to be there, and I could get used to having two quick CBs. In fact, today may well have been the quickest back four we’ve ever fielded.
Elsewhere, Giroud was class and showed his hunger. Alexis huffed and puffed but is clearly tired and Coquelin had a good game. What to make of Ozil? Well… it wasn’t vintage stuff and I was surprised he wasn’t hooked after an hour, but just as I was loudly berating him he pulls out a superb pass for the second goal. He’s an incredibly frustrating player to watch when the tempo dips, but he’s still capable of the sublime, even on a bad day. He does need a foot up the backside though: in a couple of weeks he’ll be competing with Santi for a spot.
Big laughs at the spuds – fancy losing a cup final to a team no one’s ever heard of or will ever acknowledge the existence of! And in the rain too.
Decent weekend all in all. On to the next one, and another we just need to win.
COYG
Everyone up to their usual tricks I see.
Ttg and N7 posting lots of sense.
And Spuds flattering to deceive but going home with nothing in their hands. Even their cocks are on their shirts.
The world settles a little after Wednesday. Good.
Remember all the talk about power shifts?
Check out how many games Spertz have won since the NLD.
By the by…
This was our seventh consecutive PL home win, our best run since 2005.
Doesn’t quite fit the narrative though, does it!?
Great post TTG @133. Absolutely spot on, mate.
Not a vintage performance by any means, but we got the points and I think we just about deserved them too. We pulled away from Southampton and kept the distance to Liverpool, who beat an utterly abject Man City side in the early kickoff. Yaya Toure looks increasingly past it and his defensive “effort” for both Liverpool’s goals was diabolical. Kompany giving away the ball time and again didn’t help City’s cause either. I really don’t think it’s inconceivable that we can overtake City, it will take a good run on our part but it is certainly not impossible.
Interesting post, ttg; but tell me, with 11 games to go until the end of the season, and only four points behind a team stuttering in second place, why are you worrying now about what we need to do in the summer?
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t deny that the squad needs strengthening and I share many of your concerns about individuals, but I prefer to concentrate on the current jobs in hand – the team finishing the season as high as possible, and rounding up as many goats as I can to sacrifice in aid of an unlikely result in Monaco.
COYG
Win the matches, and battles, one at a time.
137 Precisely
Far too much much made of our abject performance on Wednesday, shi happens. The players got too caught up in trying to make amends on the night instread of waiting til the 2 nd leg. If AOC hadnt have lost possession it would have been 2-1 and a far more manageable feat. As it is, we can go there balls out as no one expects us to do shit and if we lose, good luck to Monaco in the next round.
As it is, we have been going well in the league and top 3 should be our priority this season and, who knows, beating the mancs at their own gaff along the way in the cup game.
Watched that shameful sunday supplement for my sins and thank fuck for Ollie Holt’s voice of reason vs the odious and pontificunt Henry Winter. Not to mention the other sad simplistic fuckwits.
I dont care how we played today a win was all the was needed. Fuck me, ManU have been playin shite all season, while the Saints have been praised to the heavens only to start their slide down the table.
The trouble with football, well apart from the obscene TV deals, wages, plastic glory hunters, clueless pundits and ex cloggers,, agents and Robbie Savage, is, that teams/players/magagers are written off or exhaulted after one good/shite performance. The over reactions to every Arsenal loss is tantamount to a mental breakdown and some people should seek professional mental health help.
Per was awesome last season and he has been poor this, but he is a human being and must be chuffing knackered…. Giroud has come on loads and Bellerin is the find of the season for me. And I think this team would be right up there IF we hadnt have suffered so many bloody injuries(fuck off Mourinho you agenda driven twat) & bought Gabriel in the summer and given Coquelin a go at the start the season. The dropped points vs the likes of Hull, spuds and man City and Utd at home would have put us right up there. Oh if only…
And as for the other game today… The chavs can win the league cup, I wouldnt piss in it.
Take care
UTA
Great stuff, Dexter.
I’ll second that, N7. Great stuff, Dexter!
Lars @139 : YaYa had a long run in the ANC and the African players are almost always exhausted — or own Gervais used to be diabolical since his return, once of course was after that penalty miss — once they return. I think he will recover, but at the same time I agree with you #2 is not out of bounds. If we can manage to get a win at QPR — could be much tougher than we might be thinking — mid-week we will be left with 6 home games and 4 away games with only ManU being nominally a hard away match. City has a few tricky away games left and their away performances have been very inconsistent this season.
Coquelin has broken his nose, hopefully not out for too long. A masked appearance in Manchester?
Bellerin the young player of the season in PL for me. You can see him progressing match to match.
Dexter @ 141: Excellent post.
As was N7 & TTG before.
Dexter. You killed it.
Sorry.
Great stuff from you boys. It wasn’t much of a spectacle, just grateful we got out with 3 points.
The lovely Hector was one of the few who shone and Ospina made a match saving block in the first half and 2 excellent saves in the second.
Alexis has lost his magic and Ozil looks like a lost soul in a world he would rather not be in.
I thought that young Barkley was as impressive as anyone but my travelling companions thought otherwise. No accounting for taste.
Onwards to QPR and another vital 3 points.
COYRs
Pangloss
I’m worrying because I’m a supporter who watches the games regularly, sees the deficiencies in the side and in a process of continuous improvement wants us to be better. I think you’ll find most of the regulars here can’t help thinking similarly. In fact I find it strange that you don’t. I only hope Wenger is similarly preoccupied
Ttg, N7,
Not really left much to add to two good write-ups.
I did promise to say “Hello” to Hannah and her partner from Texas, who were over for their second ever visit from Texas. I told her there were a lot of Merkans who read and contribute to the bar – maybe they will become new recruits. Nice to meet you anyway.
I agree with your team building plans, ttg, pretty much spot on, although I woyld feel a bit sorry for Ooooosspiinnaaaa !!! Don’t think he’s actually done much wrong yet – he was left exposed by a comedy defence on Wednesday, but did well again today.
There was one free kick that he pushed awkwardly away for a corner but you could see in the stadium that it took a horrible skiddy bounce in front of him.
His one ‘fault’ is that he does tend to push the ball back into play off some of his diving stops rather than away – but at least he stops them.
Ttg, one of us is missing a point, perhaps the point.
I hope your worries are eventually allayed.
It’s back to work for me tomorrow, in the land of no internet connection. Fingers crossed for Wednesday night.
COYG
Dexter,
Lots to agree with there and some to disagree with.
I don’t think the reaction to the performance against Monaco – at least in this bar – was tantamount to a mental breakdown, nor was it a reaction to a single loss. Mine was a reaction to the same loss happening over and over again. To me, it looked like some of our defenders who suffered the mental breakdown.
You say, if AOC hadn’t lost possession it would have been 2-1: AOC could have lost possession and it could still have been 2-1 if our back four had maintained sensible positions and shape to see out the remaining 1 minute without conceding.
I’m struggling a bit, too, with the “if we’d bought Gabriel in the summer and given Coquelin a go at the beginning of the season”.
Well, we didn’t, despite the fact that every fan I know was desperate for us to sign another CB. Coquelin is another matter, but I don’t think he would have been given a go at all had Arteta, Flamini and even Ramsey not all been injured at the same time.
And, for sure, if we hadn’t dropped all those points you mention, we’d have a lot more points and be higher in the table.
Sorry, but we are stepping firmly into ” if my aunt had a pair of bollocks” territory here.
I would love the picture to be as rosy as you paint it but we do have problems.
Denying them is not the best way of solving them.
Well dun, GSD @146.
Yummy three points. Ye cannot ask for more than that at this time of the season.
Just finished watching “Invincibles.” Excellent stuff. Management walks in just as the show is ending and quipped, “and to think, you just missed celebrating that…”
Of course she is right, but, as our 11-year anniversary is coming up this month, I don’t think she realized that she just cost herself some jewelry.
On another note, I can’t seem to figure out what is that thing that forever remains in our shadow…
BMBD
Dexter, ttg &N7G: top posts all. Three points and a clean sheet; just what was needed after last Wednesday.
Just to be clear, I was happy to get three points any way we could today.
We did, and that’s fine.
But Wednesday was not an isolated incident.
Thats precisely the point Trev.
Evening all.
First of all, thank you for your kind comments.
Today was yet another game that I missed due to the corporate sell out to TV. Whilst I’m sure that the money is gratefully received, sadly it does little for those of us with kids that play sport.
I have now had a chance to watch the game in full. Three points is three points. However, 47% possession and only 4 shots on target against a poor Everton side at home should tell its on tale.
Not really much to add to those above. We never really seemed to get out of second gear. Ollie G was poor on Wednesday by his standards. But you can never accuse him of lacking energy and effort. Today he got his reward with a well taken opener. He is a big player for us and why people slaughter a player who has never been blessed with pace for, not having much pace has always been beyond me. He brings so much more to the table.
Ospina looked assured yet again with a good, solid display. Paulista looked shaky to start with but soon showed that he could be a real asset. Hopefully it won’t take him long to adjust.
Those who remember my views will not be surprised when I say that I agree with all of Trev’s points. To TTG I raise my glass in recognition. Your post above for me could not be more spot on.
On to Loftus Road. We might need to be a tad sharper than we have been in recent weeks.
Drinks on the bar for everyone.
Cheers Steve T,
Well said, mate.
Tell the truth now Steve:
You just decided you’d watch the Irish tear the arse out of England in the Rugby instead. There’s no shame in that mate. 😉
Welcome on back, Steve T.
Ospina has looked solid, Wednesday apart, and he had a lot of company in the could do better department that night, but I am now wondering if when AW bought him, he wasn’t buying a No 1 keeper rather than a back-up all along.
Pangloss,
I get your point entirely. Focus on the present not hypothetical future signings. It’s a good point but my experience of most football fans is that they can’t help reconstructing the side as they go.
Very few people at the Emirates are hugging themselves with delight at where we are. They are wondering how to get better.
Steve! Welcome back, man!
Relieved to see OG getting one in, that’s four in four games, so hopefully Wednesday will prove a blip. Still surprised Theo didn’t start, but not surprised he didn’t get on later with the situation in the game. Yes I read what you linked to, Dr F, but if that is the criteria then how does Danny get on when he can neither score nor be much use in defence? And much the same could be said of Ox, despite his cracking midweek goal. He made some clever runs today but still managed to lose the ball more often than make use of it.
Excellent intro from Gabby – after the shaky start. Methinks Per can resign himself to the bench for a while. Bella continues to impress, as does OspinO. And Alexis continues to struggle by his own standards.
As for Özilla I’m back to thinking we should sell him, or use him as trade on a better player in the summer – before his valuation (£20-25m currently?) falls any further.
Öskar
GSD … the punk + education part of my earlier explanation was a joke, I assume you realised? The rest was serious. 🙂
Öskar
Dexter,
Trev has provided a neat reaponse to your comments regarding arsenal fans over reaction to the Monaco defeat.
I guess the perception that their was an over reaction or other depends on your individual hopes, aspirations or eXpectations for this arsenal team.
If you tend to compare or judge the teams perfomances based on beating a team like Everton who are 6 points from the relegation zone you would think reactions to he Monaco defeat were overreaction.
If you compare or judge the team based on our performance against other champions league hopefuls, then you may think the average fans displeasure was fairly measured and mild, considering this was not a new experience.
He he Joe. I did not get to watch the rugby, although a total of 150 miles driven today did involve a spot of egg chasing for my youngest in the morning. I was 45 miles from home when the rugby was on. Like our game, it was being recorded. Unlike our game, it has not been viewed???? I’m sure that CBA is still celebrating.
I do miss the West Ham game as I have an appointment at Twickers to see the Jocks get a good hiding……….. I hope.
Lars, Ned, good evening lads. Brother Holland, greetings to you my old mucker.
One final point.
Alexis Sanchez. Not only our player of the season but arguably THE player of the season. He has been at the forefront of almost everything that has been good about us this season. We are not a one man team by any means, but I do not want to even start to contemplate where we might be now if he was not an Arsenal player.
For me he looks tired. I’m totally amazed. I’m amazed that he has got to this stage of the season having given so much and is only now starting to show the effects. The solution? Send him on holiday. Somewhere warm where he can chill out for a week or so. Recharge the batteries and come back full of energy and ready to tackle the last few months of the season. Yes, of course we would miss him, but sometimes the ends justifies the means.
Can’t sleep so just read the excellent article and 166 posts take a bow holics some great stuff.
Hello Holics,
Long time reader, sporadic poster here. I love this community and the varied views. Thank you all for this brilliant establishment.
Great win yesterday under pressure, although the performance was a bit insipid, but as Arsene says ” we showed good mental strength”.
Gabriel has a bit of a nervy start but settled in the game quite well, i think him and Kos are going to be the feature next season enabling Arsenal to press up front and play a high defensive line.
Giroud responded brilliantly which is not a big surprise given his career has been about proving himself time and again and continues still ( http://news.arseblog.com/2015/02/giroud-reveals-confidence-struggles/ ) . But i love the big guy and agree with Steve T that he should be cherished for what he does bring to the team (Good work rate, lot of physicality, Aerial ability both offensively and in defense) rather than focusing on his lack of speed.
Ozil is a conundrum, but my opinion is that he is not able to command games as much as he can due to the lack of runners. Ozil is the man to provide the key passes when opposition teams are set up to restrict our play. But i notice that there is a severe lack of movement ahead of him with teammates asking balls to be played to their feet rather than making runs to open up spaces. Theo has that ability but him and ozil both in the starting 11 leave us a bit dodgy defensively. Tough one for Arsene to figure out.
I do hope Sanchez is rested but cant see it happening. I hope he gets a goal against QPR in the next game and then spanks those red scum later this week which hopefully will start off a run of shambolic results that will kill their season and see them finish in europa places. I really want to see us knock the stuffing out of them, god knows its time we did that.
COYG
Oskar. I did get the joke- a nice touch. Bit of a quick response from me as I wrote it on my phone as an excuse to get out of bed 3 minutes later on a freezing morning!
As was this one.
Agree with Steve that Sanchez looks tired. I would rest him in midweek, but don’t imagine we will.
On the fan expectations point, I don’t think there’s as much between the two perspectives as might first be imagined.
On the one hand, Trev is completely correct: what we saw against Monaco was not an isolated incident, and was horribly, horribly familiar. Personally, I think this team is on the up (I’ll come on to why in a moment) but the fact that it retains the ability to simply blow up in any given fixture is depressing. It almost feels like certain types of pressure (not all – we seem well at home winning tight games in a very competitive run in for a top four spot – an area where our nerve seems to hold up well) send us utterly scatty – you need only think of the Milan away leg a couple of years back, or how close we came to blowing the cup semi final last season, or even the way we started the final, or the performances in the big league away games last term. I think we all hoped that the win at City might mean we’d put this tendency behind us, learned patience and to keep our shape. Monaco suggested that this is sadly not the case.
On the other hand, I think those delivering a more upbeat prognosis are probably considering our form since the New Year, which is excellent. We have taken more points than anyone bar Liverpool. We are in third place, four points off second and on a run of home form better than any since 2005.
Seen in that latter context, the Monaco result is indeed and anomaly (although you could argue that some of our recent performances suggested we were building to a balls up).
Personally, I think the team is improving. Players like Cazorla and Giroud have gone up a gear, we’ve coped well with Alexis slowing down, Bellerin is a sensational prospect and we’ve started winning games without dominating the ball, all of which is encouraging. We certainly retain the ability to shoot ourselves in the foot, and Monaco was a nightmare to rank alongside any in recent years, but maybe that will be the last thing to be fixed, who knows.
Either way, another big result needed in midweek to send us to OT in the proper mood to get that monkey off our backs. I will forgive the players nearly anything if they just go and beat Utd in their own back yard – huge opportunity to show some progress being made.
Cheers all.
COYG
Absolutely N7, beat the shite out of Manure and the season will be a success however it ends.
But when did we last win at OT? Or even at home against them. Someone will probably correct me about that, but it always looks to me every time without fail that we don’t believe we belong on the same turf as them and I am sick to the back teeth of how we kowtow to the shites with such monotononononous regularity.
We bloody well ought to be improving with players like Alexis, Özil and Cazorla in midfield, but I don’t see it. Not consistently anyway. I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t fearful of another monumental cock-up allowing some relegation struggler back into a game regardless how many goals we were ahead at the time. Not that we ever seem to be more than one goal up, maybe two, but more likely evens or behind. We rarely if ever boss games these days. Nor can we even hold the ball for more than a couple of passes. And let’s not mention the shooting accuracy.
Just having a rant here. We will of course annihilate QPR in midweek as an entree to flushing Manure down their own Old Toilet. Never been more certain of anything in my entire! 😉
Öskar
I think the last time we beat them at our place was some time around 2011, and the last time we won at the toilet was nearly a decade ago. It’s been far, far too long. Still no team I despise more than that lot – the Invincibles documentary brought it all flooding back.
Performances certainly remain uneven, but we are indisputably getting results of late. In fact, we’re currently on title form in the league, odd as that may seem (again, I’m talking about results, before anyone jumps on me).
There has certainly been progress since the start of the season, when we both looked disjointed and kept dropping points. Now we just look disjointed. Progress, eh?
on Francis Coquelin…
Yes [he has broken his nose]. I don’t know [how long he will be out], I hope not. I don’t know whether he will need surgery or not.
——————–
Ouch! Should have come off earlier.. but glad he’s really committed, shows the competition for places. Still hope it’s not too bad… and for a quick recovery!
As for resting Alexis.. the player himself doesn’t want to rest! Sometimes a mandatory time off should be enforced by the club for the benefit of all..!
Last win at Old Toilet was early in the 2006/7 season and we also won the home game that season (the Henry header in stoppage time, in case anyone’s forgotten), a 1-0 win where Adebayor scored the goal. Last home win v them was 2010/11 when Aaron Ramsey got the only goal of the game. ManU have not won all other games since those wins but not far from it, there is the odd draw here and there but other than that our results v them have been pretty dismal in later years.
But fuck that lot, we need to deal with QPR first. Three points at stake and we can not afford to drop any of them in my view.
I think we should also be brave enough to switch between Gabriel-Mertesacker and Gibbs-Monreal to suite the opponents we face and not get stuck on a permanent 1st eleven regardless.
We do need to find more defensive players, let’s hope we can get them next transfer or that those already here step up a gear or two!
Lastly, we’ll have a selection problem with our attacking midfielders/strikers if all manage to get fit on the same time, and if it’s a rigid 1st team we play with no rotation, might see some of them leaving.. like Poldi.
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